Date:         Wed, 4 Aug 1993 00:00:34 CDT
From: Bill Hayes <[IANR 012] at [UNLVM.UNL.EDU]>
Subject:      Volume 3 Issue 31, Part 4

August 3, 1993             The Comics List Weekly      Vol. 3 No. 31

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Date: 03 Aug 93 02:15:05 EDT
From: Steve Gerber <[72267 3332] at [CompuServe.COM]>
Subject: Volume 3 Issue 30 Part 6

So... have any of you on the list given the Ultraverse books a try?
Any opinions on same?

For those of you who may have missed it in CBG a couple of weeks back,
here's the text of an interview I did with Stacy Oberkrieser about EXILES,
the first of the two Ultraverse titles I'm writing.  EXILES #1 will hit the
stands in August.

I've left Stacy's introduction to the interview intact.  I'm aware how
immodest it'll sound in a post from me, but I figure there are probably at
least a few folks on the list who've never heard of me and might wonder why
I was the subject of an interview at all.

                               --------------


Steve Gerber Talks about his New Ultraverse Title: EXILES!


One of the most influential comic book creators of the '70s, Steve Gerber is
the creator of Howard the Duck. He has written extensively for Marvel Comics
and DC Comics on titles including The Phantom Zone, Man-Thing, The
Defenders, She-Hulk, and more recently The Legion of Night with superstar
Image artist Whilce Portacio. Gerber has also scripted and story-edited
animated television series such as Dungeons and Dragons, G.I. Joe, Thundarr
the Barbarian and Transformers, and co-wrote a live action Star Trek: The
Next Generation episode.

Stacy Oberkrieser: Who and what are the Exiles?

Steve Gerber: The Exiles are a group of young men and women who have been
infected with a disease called the Theta virus. The virus is uniformly fatal
unless massive intervention is taken. That intervention is a complex process
of bio-molecular manipulation that sometimes results in the virus' victim
gaining a super power.

SO: How did these people become infected with the Theta virus?

SG: Theta is a free-roaming, airborne virus. You and I and millions of
others may carry it, but it remains dormant in all but a minuscule
percentage of the population. Those people, who are called potentials in the
Exiles series, are susceptible to Theta's effects because of their specific
genetic makeup.

SO: How did the Exiles get together?

SG: They were brought together by Dr. Rachel Deming, the founder of the
Exiles Corporation. She has a technology for locating potentials, typically
during the first crucial stage when the virus becomes active.

SO: What is the goal of the Exiles, what do they want to do?

SG: They're looking to survive in the world. They're looking for others like
themselves who can be rescued from the virus. They're trying to prevent the
exploitation of other potentials by people like Malcolm Kort, who is also
recruiting them for purposes much less benign than Deming's.

SO: What is unique about the Exiles?

SG: They operate mainly in secret. No one is aware of their existence as a
group. There's a very specific reason for this. Although the virus
apparently can't threaten their lives after they've undergone the genetic
treatment, they really didn't know whether or not it's still present in
their bodies or whether they're contagious. One of the ongoing themes in
comics over the years has been that people fear certain ultrahuman
characters, because they represent some further evolution beyond the rest of
humanity. Exiles takes that idea a huge leap further to ask, how the world
would react if these mutations were catching.

SO: How and why did Rachel Deming found the Exiles Corporation?

SG: Deming herself has the virus. She invented the genetic treatment to save
her own life, which she did almost 30 years ago. It's taken her decades to
develop the technology for finding others afflcited with the virus. She's
now almost seventy years old, but the effect of the genetic treatment on her
was to halt her aging. She appears to be in her mid-thirties. That's the
"why."

       As for the "how," Deming holds a few dozen patents; she's an inventor,
a scientist, a molecular biologist; and she's channeled all her personal
wealth into this crusade.

SO: What about Deming's assistant, Heather Faraday?

SG: She's a unique case. The transformation that turns some potentials into
ultrahumans is always unpredictable. It could turn someone into a
monstrosity, or, as in Heather's case, they could emerge from it perfectly
normal.

SO: Could Heather be in for changes in the future?

SG: To be honest, I don't know. I like the premise that not everyone who
contracts this virus will become an ultra. It lends a little reality and
believability to the series.

SO: What can you tell me about the Exiles? Let's start with Catapult.

SG: Catapult is described in the bible as "one of those kids Bill Clinton is
so worried about." He's Wayne and Garth put together. His power has to do
with manipulation of potential energy, the energy that resides in an object
at rest. He can direct that energy against the object itself. It allows him
to do things like lift and hurl Buicks.

SO: Deadeye?

SG: Deadeye is a former biker with a mysterious and dark past. His power is
an absolutely uncanny sense of aim. As a result of that, and of
technological enhancements that have been made to his senses, he's able to
use almost anything as a weapon.

SO: Ghoul?

SG: The Theta virus essentially mortified his flesh. Ghoul is a living
zombie. He seems to be immune to pain, immune to poison-he does things like
spoon Drano into his coffee to freak people out. His appearance is so
ghastly, he figures the only way to stay sane is to laugh about it. He's a
very strange character with a very bleak, very eerie sense of humor. Oh, and
he claims he has the ability to talk to the dead. This takes a very unusual
form. It's not like a seance or trance-channeling.

SO: Mustang?

SG: Mustang is like Ross Perot at age 18. He's a very serious, go-getter
type with a strong conscience and an east Texas background. Whether he'll
remain a proto-Perot is another question. I deliberately established his
hometown as Port Arthur, Texas, which is where Janis Joplin grew up.
Mustang's powers are electrical in nature. He can generate an enormous
electrical force in his body and then, with the aid of devices similar to
electrical contacts affixed to his costume, he can discharge it as bolts or
electrical fields. He can also discharge the energy directly from his body
if he comes into contact with any kind of conductive metal or substance.

SO: What about Tinsel?

SG: Tinsel is blind, and has the power to manipulate light. She's able to
see with some special goggles that Deming has made for her, but we're not
sure how exactly those work. We haven't done a point-of-view shot through
her eyes yet. I doubt that it is normal vision. She's able to store light
like a solar battery, and manipulate it, using it as bolts of force.

SO: Trax?

SG: Trax's power is the ability to follow, or home in on, anyone with whom
he's ever come into direct physical contact. He's like a human bloodhound.
Inherent in that power is the suggestion of further psychic or empathic
abilities that he's either suppressing or as yet unaware of. He is one of
the more unique personalities in the group, because he comes off as an
absolute boor, a true macho pig. This may be a defense that he employs to
keep from dealing with a sensitivity to others' psychic emanations that he
doesn't want to acknowledge.

SO: En Flame?

SG: En Flame is a rarity in comics-a character who really is completely and
utterly obnoxious, with no conveniently- placed heart of gold to redeem her.
Her first reaction on being taken to the Exiles headquarters is, "Ewww! You
mean everyone here is diseased?" She wants no part of this. She's not at all
convinced the disease is going to kill her if she doesn't undergo the
treatment. She doesn't like these people and doesn't want to be around them.
She has absolutely no heroic ambitions and would much rather be hanging with
her friends at the mall than running around in this comic book. As far as
she's concerned, this whole Exiles business is just an unwanted imposition
on her time.

SO: Tell me some more about the villain, Malcolm Kort.

SG: Kort is still developing as a character. He was born with a very odd
deformity-these weird, three-fingered hands. As such, he was an object of
scorn while growing up. He's from New Jersey, a tough town like Union City.
His parents were failed theatrical performers. His father was a musician,
his mother a dancer. He got interested in show business at a very early age,
but in those days, his hands would have made a stage or film career
impossible. He ultimately became a producer of television and film, with
slightly grander designs than that. Instead of just creating worlds in a
studio, he has it firmly in mind to reshape the real world according to his
own vision.

SO: Exiles has been in development for more than a year. Has that made it
different from other Ultraverse titles?

SG: Let's explain a little of the history behind that question first. Exiles
was created over a year ago by Dave Olbrich, Chris Ulm, and Tom Mason, as a
"standalone" book, like Ex-Mutants or Protectors. At that time, it wasn't
intended to be part of a larger comic book universe. The first issue of the
book had been plotted, scripted in first draft, pencilled, and even
partially lettered and inked before I ever became involved with it. In fact,
even my initial involvement with Exiles preceded the first Ultraverse
conference by a number of months. I came aboard because Dave, Chris, and Tom
were knee-deep in other projects -- everything from trafficking the Image
books to reviving Dinosaurs for Hire -- and none of them had time to finish
the Exiles book or write the series in the future. Later, as the Ultraverse
was being created, we realized there was nothing in Exiles that inherently
contradicted the world we were building, so the title became part of the
line.

       It's different from the other titles in that there are actually four
writers on the first issue. Dave, Chris, Tom, and Dan in collaboration
wrote most of the first twelve pages. I made some minor changes on those
pages, rewrote their draft for the next eight pages or so, and then
replotted and rewrote the ending of the first issue. I think we've managed
to stitch the styles together without many seams showing, but it's the only
Ultraverse title that was put together in quite that way.

       It's different, too, in that most of the development of the
characters was done after the book was created. The four original creators
had written up a brief "bible" for the series, but-I hope I don't offend
anyone with this remark-it was all done in what I think of as Malibu's
internal cryptography. It mainly consisted of notes the guys had made about
stuff they'd discussed at length among themselves, more like a list of
reminders than a full development of the series. I took those notes and
expanded them to about five times their original length and detail, because
I needed to get a very clear idea in my own head of the characters, their
backgrounds, their motivations, their speech patterns, and so on.

       Also, because of when the first issue was written, there aren't as
many references to the rest of the Ultraverse in Exiles #1 as people might
be expecting. By the second issue, though, it's abundantly clear that the
series is taking place in that world.

SO: What would you like readers to get out of the story?

SG: I'd like them to come away from the book feeling that they've spent time
with some people worth knowing, or, in the case of the villains, worth
taking the time to dislike. I'd like them to feel that something was at
stake in these adventures, that it's more than just costumes beating up on
other costumes. In my more grandiose moments, I'd like them to feel that
they learned something about themselves and the world through these
characters. I'd also like them to have a really good time.

SO: How would you describe yourself?

SG: I'm your average borderline personality (laughter). I'm originally from
St. Louis, Missouri. I'm 45 years old-no, make that 39. After graduating
from St. Louis University, a Catholic college, and doing a little work
towards a master's degree, I worked in radio and advertising. In 1972 I left
St. Louis and moved to New York to work for Marvel Comics. I came to
California in 1977, but I've never felt completely comfortable out here. So,
I'm a Missouri Jew, trained by Jesuits, who's spent the last sixteen years
in Los Angeles, but whose home will always be New York. I think that sums it
up (laughter).

SO: What is a work day like for you?

SG: I get up, I have two or three cups of coffee, I walk the dog. I come
back, I turn on the computer and stare at the screen for a long time. I have
another cup of coffee, walk the dog, and come back and stare at the computer
again for a long time. Eventually, I actually type something, and then I
write until I drop.

SO: How did you originally get into comics?

SG: I was among the first wave of fans to work professionally in comics. The
trail actually leads all the way back to Missouri, to when I was thirteen or
fourteen years old and wrote a letter to a fellow by the name of Roy Thomas,
who'd had a letter published in a DC comic called Hawkman. Roy's published
letter contained some information about the 1940's version of the Hawkman
character. That interested me, so I dropped him a note and asked if he had
time to explain some of this stuff. He was gracious enough to do that, and
we became regular correspondents. A number of years later, Roy moved to New
York, and by 1972 had become the editor of Marvel Comics. I was getting
really sick of advertising, so I dropped him a line and asked if there were
any openings for writers at Marvel. Amazingly, there were.

SO: How did you hook up with Malibu?

SG: Gradually. I've only come to know the guys well over the past year or
so. Dave Olbrich and I had met several times before, and I'm sure that Chris
Ulm and I had been introduced, but that was it. The association started in
earnest because of a project I had in mind a year or so ago that never quite
got off the ground. Those discussions, though, led to my work on Exiles, and
I discovered I liked working with the guys a lot. I guess they felt the same
way, so when the Ultraverse happened, it was just a natural thing that I got
involved.

SO: What are some of your other works in the comics industry?

SG: I'm probably best known for is having created Howard the Duck. I've done
a whole assortment of titles for Marvel: Defenders, Man-Thing, Omega The
Unknown, and, more recently, Foolkiller, Legion of Night, and Suburban
Jersey Ninja She- Devils. I've also done a little work for DC Comics and
Eclipse, and I'm writing one series now for Image.

SO: My dad is a big Howard The Duck fan.

SG: Your dad. That is the bane of my existence. The words I most dread
hearing, and I'm starting to hear them more and more these days, are, "I
loved your work when I was a kid." There are now fans well past the age of
consent who grew up reading my early stuff. It's scary, because at some
level I still think of myself as 27 years old. This shouldn't be happening
yet.

SO: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

SG: A couple of things, yes. First of all, I want to warn everyone well in
advance that Exiles #4 will be a very important issue in terms of the entire
Ultraverse line. It's still too early to reveal any of the details, but what
happens in that book will have repercussions that extend to every other
Ultraverse title. I think it's safe to say, too, that the ending of that
issue will come as a major surprise to anyone who's read the previous three.
I don't believe anything quite like this has ever been done in comics
before.

       Secondly, I want to say that I'm really thrilled about working on
the Ultraverse books. Malibu has put together an incredible group of writers
and artists, and I'm particularly pleased with the artists working on my two
titles, Exiles (August) and Sludge (October).

       Finally, working with Malibu has been an absolute joy so far, from
a creative standpoint, from a business standpoint-everything. This may turn
out to be the best experience I've ever had in comics.

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